


Not a Croc

by Minion_Energon_101



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Awkward Sniper (Team Fortress 2), Cute, Engineer Makes a Weird Thing to Pass Time, Engineering, Flirting, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Shippy Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 08:37:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20043088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minion_Energon_101/pseuds/Minion_Energon_101
Summary: [Gift for girzapata6 on Tumblr]Sniper heard Scout laughing about a suspended animal in Engineer's workshop. So, Sniper investigates if its true.





	Not a Croc

**Author's Note:**

> A silly picture inspired this and I have no idea why. Its just a silly alligator picture made of metal gears and pieces. But alas I made this!
> 
> The Pic (& my Tumblr):  
https://energonalucard.tumblr.com/post/186583311541/writing-prompt-s-image-prompt-okay-a-short

Sniper looked at the hovering piece of black mass on the pulley system above his head, taking a step into the garage as before but more weary. Call him anxious or call him crazy, but tons of metal and condensed parts didn’t sit right hovering over him like a looming dread of the enemy Spy personified. He made a half circle around the bark shadow of the mostly covered piece that was sitting under a tarp and rope, jeans singing and creaking as he stretched out his larger legs to make the distance disappear between him and the Engineer after his small detour.

The Engineer wasn’t wearing his ear muffs or welding mask to do his usual respective tasks of each item, and to Sniper’s luck. Though the unlocked door and unblinking, turned off yellow caution lights should have clued him in edgewise he was clear to get Engie before he shut himself off for the night.

The stocky man had kean ears, from years of being a Spies main target and probably years of being a secrets keeper himself on a farm of his family’s name. Sniper had only gotten a little out of the man once, about that home, and all he could manage was catching “never a nice first entry for anyone stupid enough using the front door”. And Engineer had become a bit more equivocal and cagey about his home. Sniper respected not talking about family at work, and didn’t push it for questions, gaining back the Engineer’s full trust after not pursuing his little slip up. 

The Texan’s hunched back was facing him for two to three steps and then; and as if calculated beforehand, the small man was turning in his chair to face his visitor when Sniper came close enough for casual chatter. The chair, a hard metal stool probably on its last long ride at Mann Co. let out a ringing creak through its hollows. Engie’s smiling face took him a bit of courage to muster words. 

His first wave of social aloofness took a bit to break, even with the man who shared his bed many times. The googles were a staple of being an Engineer, but their dark pools halted any comforting eye contact Engie could have graced him. Reminds him of Pyro’s mask too, how you can never tell what’s happening under the dark pools until the flamethrower or crayons come out.

The Engineer noticed Sniper’s stiff jaw, and messing with his left glove (he never mess’ with the right, never) to fix it over his arm, he speaks first. “What can I do for you Slim?” The question generic, Engie must have though Sniper would have initiated the talk since he entered Engineer’s space. Probably another day, but not after what he heard Scout giggling about.

“Just a bit of… clarification. That alright?” Sniper said, before adding the last part like an afterthought. 

“Sure, shoot me straight what’s on your mind.” The lopsided, cheekbone showing smile was split in half as the Texan’s white teeth showed in his small bit of laughter, his left hand tapping his respective knee as he wheezed his enjoyment.

That small wheeze almost made Sniper let out his own small start of laughter, but unlike the hilarious wheeze the Engineer let out that started a tickling in Sniper’s own throat, Sniper considered his own titter weird. So he let a smile break his usually frown and let out an amused puff of air.

“I won’t bother you too long, but Scout said something about a dangling croc of mechanical origin being in here. And then Demoman said something about automatons of magic and blood…” Sniper rubbed the back of his head as he startled to mumble around Demo’s drunk accusations. 

Scout was sober and lucid, able to understand what’s around him. Demo wasn’t sober at the time and had just jumpstarted himself after a hard enough snore from his deep, drunk slumber. But still, a metal croc just didn’t happen out of thin air in the base’s garage after Sniper doesn’t visit it for two days, and meeting Merasmus put him straight on the idea of magic... Sure. Medic sure was obsessed with the ideas it wroth, and Demoman has always known about magic existing. Hell, Soldier LIVED with Merasmus a couple times.

The Engineer’s dark goggles revealed nothing but his teeth showing grin fell a bit, probably at the prospect of having his lab invaded by the delinquent. His smile turned a bit biting, like he was on the verge of frowning, but soon stood up and his grin was much calmer. 

“Well, at least it wasn’t Spy snooping a glimpse at it. Probably insult it and we’d really have a tissy fit at dinner.” Engineer groaned as he stood up, his back seemingly fighting him as he stood up straight. Sniper could feel the discomfort from his earlier sitting from over here. “At least I know who was the one making my skin crawl snooping around my lab lately, thanks for tellin’ me Slim.”

Sniper let Engineer brush past him and pulled his longer arms up on instinct after Engie brushed his cold palm across his tall lovers arm. Being in this base taught him two things about his arms and shoulders. One, city people tend to take for granted your shoulder room and just brush shoulders like common pals in the hall, no matter if you have all the room you need like Scout does. And two, usually Heavy or Demo complain about being knocked in the shoulders (Heavy for his width and Demo for his drunken walk being uneven and everywhere, strangely Soldier has never complained even with a larger torso the Demo) but Engineer tried his best to stay away from people. The social awkwardness and having to pull himself physically away from Scout, Demo, or Heavy walking sometimes got to him and made him jerk under Engie’s brush.

Well, that didn’t stop the walking Texan from brushing his back either on his trip to the pulley’s level and suspension cables. Sniper, a bit flustered on the inside but not detured from learning about this magic croc, turned around and walked a bit closer to the big shadow created in this lab above him. He crossed his long arms and watched as Engineer pulled a small level on a three switch patch on the wall with wires and tech coming out of the box, the wall whining and the tech under the tarp being lowered right above Sniper. It was slow, but eventually the whining stopped enough for Enginner to pull the tarp off at his torso height. The rustling and unclipping of the tarps fasteners, and the sudden yanking that made the space fill in only a sound comparable to as twenty different people crumbling paper at once... was not lost on Sniper.

What was lost on him was what he had to say about what's on the pulley.

Engineer put the tarp down and watched as Sniper took a look at his more intensive design. And began to feel sheepish showing them. Not all parts Grey Mann uses are valuable or able to be salvaged, and sure scrap and refined are big currency parts in a lot of Mann Co affiliate places... but Engineer never really needed that. Maybe a replacement Gunslinger or maybe sending back a crate to sender because he only ever used their "_stock_" options for reliability. And sometimes if he gets metal or random parts after a match, he’ll square and break it off for this thing.

Seems a bit of a waste now, to be honest to him. But he was an Engineer and building was his first priority for boredom.

Sniper broke the silence after seemingly being facinated with the two crocs open jaws, not making eye contact with Engie. "These aren’t crocs. These are alligators. Skinny, American ones I’m guessing.” His hands were uncrossed and simply making gestures at the big piece like he wanted to touch it.

Engineer was a bit taken aback and noticed the weird hand movements, with Sniper rubbing his hands together to have them do something instead of gesture. It brought a small chuckle to the Texan. “Go on, I don’t make things to just look good. I make it stable, you can mess with it. All welded and melted together.” He watched as the Sniper leaned a bit forward to check the other side. Where Engie had it at his own height’s torso, Sniper had room to lean. “Its more likely to hurt you if you just grab the frills on the back, I think I made them too sharp. And they didn’t come that way.”

“The skute?” Sniper asked. He liked the design of said back protection, but usually its spotted for crocodile’s as they get more coverage from predators, furthering this from a croc and taking influence from an alligator.

Engie let a puzzled second of silence happen before he gave in, asking, “What?”

And apparently Sniper hadn’t meant to flex that knowledge, or at least didn’t expect Engineer to not be specific in his confusion. “What?”

There was a long pause until Engineer let out a wheezed laugh at Sniper’s face. With those glasses blocking his full view, he can really only work out Sniper’s mouth and eyebrows from under his goggles. He looked so caught in a headlight it made the smaller man almost tickled, the assassin before him had attributes almost as cute as a child explaining away their favorite topic to mom or dad.

“Nothing, Slim.” He said and leaned a bit over his own masterpieces. “What’d you say earlier about these not being crocs? I mean, I won’t disagree with you as you know animals, but its just good to know what your thinking, is all.”

Sniper looked down, hands drawing over the cold dips where pieces didn’t fit perfectly to make a flat surface. He seemed a bit out of it. “Crocs have sharper mouths, not rounded like this. And the teeth need to show on the outside. And too skinny…" 

And there he goes, listing off in short bits of information as he grew more flustered and it probably grew harder to talk for him. Sniper didn’t have many words to say a lot of the time, being a quiet guy who grew up with no siblings (all Engineer really wanted to know about his family, and even that’s too much) and worked alone. And being Australian, with color words and vocabulary to the American across from him, means he probably had a lot to say and use his voice for.

But not Sniper. He was trained to be quiet, to not be seen. That, and habits are hard to break. With Engie staring at him, its probably breaking the man up a bit to be to be so open.

Engie reached his arm over the first croc to rest his fingertips over top of the Sniper’s own and using his other hand to make a backing down gesture. Sniper liked animals, knew a lot. But he was uncomfortable and yet excited to tell Engie about his knowledge. 

But Engie would rather sit in silence and nervousness then have the Aussie uncomfortable.

"You don’t have to say much else, Slim. American alligator is all I know about. Never seen the mightier beast myself just yet.” He said, a bit stretched across his own contraption to meet Sniper’s hand.

The Aussie let out his remaining breath, but not before letting off one last final shot. “A bit short too.”

“Now I know you ain’t aiming at me now, are ya?” He laughed, having Sniper go back to examining his alligator of multi-metal origin.


End file.
